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Patients in England with diabetes are better managed than their counterparts in the United States of America due to access to universal healthcare available in the United Kingdom, according to new research.

“Our evidence shows that universal healthcare when treating a common disease like diabetes, works,” said Professor Arch Mainous from the Medical University of South Carolina. “In both countries, diabetes sufferers are effectively managed as outpatients and our research shows that when patients have access to free healthcare, they have better clinical outcomes.

This week's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine contains the first article in a series on medical education. Medical education in both the USA and UK is undergping major reform, driven by societal changes that have encouraged greater patient autonomy and patient choice, and by changes in medical practice and the provision of medical services that are changing the traditional 'hospital bedside' mode of teaching to more community-based models of teaching.

The Public Library of Science has launched a new open access journal, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. This will be the first open access journal devoted to neglected tropical diseases, such as elephantiasis, river blindness, leprosy, hookworm, schistosomiasis, and African sleeping sickness. Funding for the new journal has come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is playing an increasingly important role in research on these diseases. Neglected tropical diseases affect hundreds of millions of people in developing countries and cause a huge amount of ill-health. The new journal should raise the profile of research on such diseases and provide a valuable resource for doctors, health professionals and all others working to improve the lives of people suffering from such diseases.

Medical journals have begun to enter the world of podcasting. Four of the largest general medical journals (the BMJ, Lancet, JAMA, and NEJM) have begun to publish podcasts on their websites. It’s an interesting development and will allow the busy doctor to keep up to date with key developments in medicine. I listen to the podcasts while travelling to and from work and find they fill this time, whilst also educating me about the articles published in these four journals. Patients and the public may also find the podcasts useful. They add to the large volume of information on health and medicine available on the Internet.